Soil bacteria protect fungi from phenazines by acting as toxin sponges.

ABSTRACT: Many environmentally and clinically important fungi are sensitive to toxic, bacterially produced, redox-active molecules called phenazines. Despite being vulnerable to phenazine assault, fungi inhabit microbial communities that contain phenazine producers. Because many fungi cannot withstand phenazine challenge but some bacterial species can, we hypothesized that bacterial partners may protect fungi in phenazine-replete environments. From a single soil sample, we were able to co-isolate several such physically associated pairings. We discovered the novel species Paraburkholderia edwinii and demonstrated it can protect a co-isolated Aspergillus species from phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) by sequestering it, acting as a toxin sponge; in turn, it also gains protection. When challenged with

SUBMITTER: Dahlstrom KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8792240 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature